Cowardly John Ashcroft... BLAMES CLINTON for 9-11! "It's CLINTON's FAULT!" that Ashcroft STOPPED FLYING PUBLIC AIRLINERS in JULY 2001!

Talk about a cowardly no-account leader! John Ashcroft puts "cowardly Democrats" to shame!

You see, in July of 2001 - that is, two full months BEFORE 9-11-2001, John Ashcroft STOPPED FLYING ON PUBLIC AIRLINERS because of a "TERRORIST THREAT ASSESMENT." At the time (July of 2001) we thought of one of two possibilities: either Mr. Ashcroft preferred to fly private, charter jets for the exclusivity, privacy, and convenience, and was using "terrorist threat assesment" as an excuse.... or... THERE REALLY WAS A "TERRORIST THREAT ASSESMENT" from the FBI or CIA that drove Mr. Ashcroft to make the change in his flying habits.
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Read it and weep: the CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE, bordering on gross DERELICTION OF DUTY against a potential wartime threat, of our nation's highest ranking LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL, who did NOTHING about a known HIJACKING THREAT to America's airlines... but for that official, ATTORNEY GENERAL JOHN ASHCROFT, to decide to fly on private charter jets instead of public airliners - LEAVING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC COMPLETELY VULNERABLE TO that "terrorist threat assesment"!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml
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Which of course, should the later be true, leads to the next question: WHAT exactly was the nature of that "TERRORIST THREAT ASSESMENT," and WHY did Attorney General John Ashcroft NOT include the American travelling public in that "THREAT ASSESMENT" warning?

To clarify, the articles did indeed include the line "terrorist threat assesment," and in reply to press questions about the change in flight status, Mr. Ashcroft only implied that he was "ordered" by the FBI to stop flying on public airlines.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS THAT *NO* officials of the Bush administration- not Department of Justice and the nation's lead law-enforcement official JOHN ASHCROFT; not the nation's NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR Condoleeza Rice, and certainly not the President, George W. Bush, BOTHERED TO INFORM THE AMERICAN PUBLIC of the looming threat of Al Qaida hijackings or bombings...... NOT EVEN A GENERAL TRAVELLER's ADVISORY, an almost routine precaution listed daily at nation's aiports for passengers travelling to potentially dangerous destinations.

- PRIVATE CHARTER JETS to protect John Ashcroft's precious behind.

- NOT EVEN a GENERAL TRAVELLER's ADVISORY for the American airline travelling public and aircrews

Mr. Ashcroft, you are indeed an exemplar of Rethuglican "moral values."

And it is only because Democrats (INCLUDING BILL CLINTON, so often, as in this case, the victim of one-sided media portrayals) have abjectly SURRENDERED fairness and impartiality in the media to the Rethuglican/corporate-media juggernaut, that the American public is not outraged across the board.

<< Former Attorney General John Ashcroft this week became the only Cabinet-level Bush official to attack the Sept. 11 Commission, writing in his memoirs it "seemed obsessed with TRYING TO LAY BLAME for the terrorist attacks at the feet of the Bush administration, while VIRTUALLY ABSOLVING the PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION [Clinton's] of responsibility." >>

SO MUCH FOR ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY, Mr. Ashcroft!

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Analysis: Ashcroft blasts 9-11 Commission
By SHAUN WATERMAN
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20061005-052222-3483r

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Former Attorney General John Ashcroft this week became the only Cabinet-level Bush official to attack the Sept. 11 Commission, writing in his memoirs it "seemed obsessed with trying to lay the blame for the terrorist attacks at the feet of the Bush administration, while virtually absolving the previous administration of responsibility."

Ashcroft also writes that the commission's hearings "were not so much about discovering the truth as they were about assessing blame and grandstanding," adding that they "degenerated into show trials."

GOP Commissioner Slade Gorton, a former senator from Washington State, told United Press International Thursday that he found the charges "extraordinary," recalling that President Bush had personally repudiated Ashcroft's tactics in his sparring with the commission.

"Most of the criticism (the commission received) was the exact opposite: that we didn't blame anyone," he said. "Our job was to write a factual account which readers could use to assess blame for themselves."

Ashcroft "may very well have been the worst witness we interviewed," he said, adding he was "very unresponsive and unhelpful."

"I was particularly disappointed," he added, "because I liked him when we were in the Senate together." Ashcroft served as GOP Senator for Missouri 1994-2000.

Ashcroft, who was traveling in Europe Thursday, did not respond to a request for comment. The White House and the Justice Department also declined comment on the row, the latest round in a series of increasingly bitter pre-election exchanges about the respective responsibilities of the Clinton and Bush administrations for failing to stop the Sept. 11 attacks.

In his memoir, "Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice," Ashcroft accuses the commission, formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States, of trying to "stimulate media interest" in their hearings by leaking "juicy tidbits" beforehand. He writes that this was why he -- alone of all the serving and former senior officials who were witnesses for the commission -- did not provide them with advance copies of his testimony.

Gorton dismissed that explanation, saying "The reason, I'm convinced, is that he intended to -- and did -- use his testimony to launch a disingenuous and underhanded personal attack on a member of the commission."

At his April 14, 2003, appearance Ashcroft sprung on the commission a just-declassified top secret memo written by commission member and former Clinton administration Justice Department official Jamie Gorelick in 1995. The memo, Ashcroft said, was "the basic architecture" for the so-called wall, which he said was "the greatest structural cause for Sept. 11."